I was trying to figure out how to thank a friend who has been very helpful the last couple months. She’s been working hard and really getting a lot accomplished. But what to do for her?

She recently moved in to a new office and mentioned she wants to decorate her new space. That’s when a spark of creativity ignited in my mind….

I decided to visit one of my favorite embroidery design sites—Embroidery Online to find something fun to stitch for my friend’s office.

Not having any idea what I wanted, I decided to visit the New Releases section on their homepage.

That’s when the Loop-de-Loop designs caught my attention. They look like something I would doodle and color if I had the talent!

I had a vague idea what I wanted—stark contrasting colors and maybe even decorative stitching thrown in for even more effect. And I’d like to decorate with some rick rack!

I used Perfect Embroidery Pro but most digitizing software programs have the same function.

Open one of the letters from the collection. Select the entire design. (Press Ctrl + A). Right click on the design and select Group.

Next click on the Artwork tool.

Then click on Rectangle from the dropdown menu.

Draw a rectangle around the design as shown.

Right click on an empty thread color box at the bottom of your workspace. Click Add Color. Another color is added to your workspace. You can click on the color and change it to any color you wish. I chose a bright red to make it easier on my eyes to see. Next click on the rectangle image you drew. Then right click on color 7 to assign the new color to the rectangle.

Select the Letter. Right click and select Create Outline.

A new window appears.

Click OK to keep the default settings.

Your design should look similar to the one shown below.

If you look very closely in the image above, you’ll notice the outline around the design is a light blue. I added an arrow to help. As a matter of preference, I like my artwork to match, (and I like to be able to see it!) With the outline selected, right click on the color 7 to change the color to red.

Notice both artwork designs are red as shown in the color sequence in the image below.

Click on the red color sequence to select the artwork. Now click on the Combine icon in the top toolbar.

With the artwork still selected, click on Texture icon.

A window appears with a variety of textures. I chose number 148.

The texture is added to the artwork. Notice the stitching goes around the letter—it doesn’t stitch on top – which wouldn’t be a very pretty sight! The reason it works: we drew the rectangle shape, created an outline around the letter and combined the two elements. By doing these steps you get the decorative stitching in just the right areas.

For fun, (don’t do these steps, I’m just showing you for illustrative purposes) I clicked undo all the way to the step where I combined the two artwork elements. Then I added the texture. Now you see what happens when you don’t combine! Yikes! The decorative stitching covers the top of my beautiful letter D. Now, hopefully you see the importance of adding outlines and combining.

Save the (proper) design with a unique name and send to the embroidery machine.

Repeat the steps for each letter.

I stitched the design in fun, bright colors – the colors seemed to fit my friend’s personality. Next, I sewed rick rack along the edge of the embroidery. The final touch were the buttons at every corner of the design.

Here’s your assignment this week:

As I was sewing the buttons on the embroidery, the recipient walked in to my office and with a look of interest asked what I was up to. I quickly changed the subject – hoping to distract her with ANYTHING. The project is a surprise for her, after all! I felt pretty confident I had changed the subject.. then she started to collect and arrange a couple of the letters. “What do the letters spell?” she asked. I got really nervous at that point!

Now I submit the question to you! What do the letters spell? A A N D N I

Post your answer and one lucky recipient (with the right answer) will be selected to win a $25 gift card to use on the Designs in Machine Embroidery website!

This week tell me what color do you think I should wear? Let’s take a vote. Tell me if you think deep blue, coral or taupe is the way to go. Post your comments and ONE random winner will be selected to win the Designer Handbags DVD

The winners is:

Carolyn W: “I think the blue would enhance your coloring. It is such a cool color.”

Upcoming Fun!Be sure to look for the upcoming behind the scenes blog featuring these letters. I’ll share my tips and of course my signature foibles I always seem to make!